Longlin Tung Oil

Longlin Tung Oil

　　Tung oil: The tung tree mainly has two varieties—the three-year tung and the one-year tung—both of which thrive in sunlight and warm climates. Its seeds can be pressed to extract tung oil. Tung oil is one of the finest drying oils, with over 850 industrial applications, and is an export commodity of China. Longlin is one of the counties rich in tung oil production. It is produced all over the county, with the highest yields coming from towns such as D’e, Zhuchang, Jinzhongshan, Gebu, Jieting, Yancha, and Yaqiu. During the peak years of the 1970s and 1980s, annual tung seed harvests exceeded 6,000 tons, but this declined after the 1990s, now dropping to around 3,000 tons of tung seeds per year (equivalent to 2,000 tons of oil). Due to the abundant tung seed production, all products from the county-run state-owned oil pressing factory in the 1970s were exported. However, after the 1980s, with the decline in tung fruit yield, the state-owned oil factory closed down, leaving only small private oil mills in operation. These currently produce about 1,500 tons of tung oil annually, and the product remains popular both domestically and internationally.